Soon holiday care for school children in Peiting?

Pilot project picks up speed

Created: 01/10/2023, 16:00

By: Barbara Schlotterer-Fuchs

In the newly built open all-day care next to the Alfons Peter elementary school in Peiting, there could be holiday care for elementary school students in the future.

© Hans-Helmut Herold

A holiday care for school children in Peiting is within reach - albeit in a scaled-down form.

Parents, schools, community and child welfare are working on a pilot project.

Peiting – After a second exploratory round, the school childcare project is gaining momentum in Peiting during the holidays.

From a second conversation with parents, headmasters, municipal administration, mayor and children's aid, all parties came out positively.

At least there is a rough concept.

There can be no question of comprehensive holiday care if care is promised in four out of a total of 14 weeks of school holidays.

However: a start has been made.

"Many of those who have elementary school children at home are happy if there is any childcare at all," confirms Kathrin Schropp from Peiting.

The single mother of two children took the initiative in spring for holiday care for school children (we reported).

Back then, she hadn't exactly been beating open doors.

Finally, the personnel situation is also tense in the childcare area.

In fact, a few rounds of talks have contributed to the fact that this solution could now be within reach: four weeks a year, elementary school students could possibly go to the newly built open all-day school (OGTS) next to the Alfons-Peter - Elementary school to be looked after.

Even if it's only six hours a day, "that would help us parents a lot," says Schropp.

It is clear that this also costs something.

Barbara Scherdi, managing director of Kinderhilfe Oberland, calculated this again in the most recent round of talks and came up with a cost of almost 500 euros.

Still cheaper than if you have to take unpaid leave.

Who could take over the care of the school children: Scherdi first wants to clarify this within the ranks of the already existing staff pool of the children's aid.

In general, there is a lot to clarify in advance.

Among other things, it is about cleaning and catering.

In order to keep it simple, Schropp first advocated that the children take well-filled lunch backpacks with them.

The logistics in the OGTS would be perfect.

After all, there are not only rooms to play there, but also a small canteen to eat.

A start is made at four weeks

Peiting's Mayor Peter Ostenrieder, who knows the plight of many parents, also provided support for the project.

"There is a need, we need at least a few weeks of care that we can offer during the holidays." "I'm with the mothers, we'll do everything that's possible." for which holiday weeks a sufficient staff base would be available.

After all, the supervisors would also have to have a certain professional inclination.

And because almost 500 euros for four weeks of holiday care is not little money, the municipality of Peiting also wants to provide financial support "and shoot a little something".

Finally, there would also be support from the community for parents who use the services of a childminder.

Ostenrieder describes the Peitingen holiday care as a “pilot project”.

After all, it is unparalleled in the area.

In order to find out how great the need among working parents actually is, there will be a new needs survey at the Peitingen primary schools.

The parents of the preschool children should not be forgotten either.

When it is then clear in which holiday weeks the care can be taken care of by staff, "there is a new, binding query with the parents".

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Entitlement to care from 2026

In fact, the pilot project, which is taking shape in Peiting, is actually a must throughout Germany from 2026.

And that was already decided in 2021 with the "Act on all-day support for children of primary school age".

The legal entitlement to all-day care for children of primary school age is intended to close a care gap that arises for many families after daycare as soon as the children start school.

The law includes the gradual introduction of an entitlement to all-day support for primary school children: from August 2026, all children in the first grade should initially be entitled to all-day support.

The entitlement is to be expanded by one grade level in the following years so that from August 2029 every primary school child in grades one to four is entitled to all-day care - including during the holidays.

How this is to be managed in the shortest possible time: Peter Ostenrieder cannot yet imagine that.

"I'm almost certain that the implementation will be pushed back again." At least a (small) start has already been made with the Peitingen pilot project.